Tuesday, June 3, 2014

Jo Clayton's "Serroi"

In the forgotten time-sink of the late 1980s I was fond of the fantasy fiction of the late Jo Clayton. She, like many of the female fantasy writers of her time, wrote tales of warrior women, no matter how unrealistic the details were. They made good material for character portraits such as this one. The character here is "Serroi," a part-alien humanoid with pale olive-green skin and reddish hair. She also has an extrasensory "eye-spot" on her forehead. Serroi, like most of the women characters in this era, endures years of brutal abuse before coming into her own as an independent person. This small character study shows Serroi as a warrior archer complete with her miniature bow. The glow from her boot top is a magical talisman that she finds during one of her ordeals.